First of all KLM is one of the nicest airlines I have ever flown. The best part, besides awesome layover in Amsterdam the Venice of the north, is each personal tv comes with a little remote so you're not forced to watch whatever tv/movie is on the 3 to 4 movie channels they give you. So you get to pick your movie or show and start it whenever you want. And you get to pause and rewind/fastforward just like a dvr! Best thing ever. Why don't all international planes have this feature?? One more thing about KLM, the food is just ok but reminded me of ikea. yuck.
Alright, so flight was good. I actually slept most of the way like I wanted to so I would be able to function in the city. Side note: they sure like to drink on this airline. They kept pushing beer, wine, and after dinner bailey's shots haha. We landed early, about 7am and I made my way to the arrivals area for passport control which was a total joke. No line, took about 1 minute. The guy was cute though, and told me Centraal was just 15 min away on the train and I should be back in no time when I told him I was just here on a layover to see the Anne Frank Huis. Thanks rando Dutch guy. After that was baggage claim, which was easy since I had none, and then I just walked through a door that said nothing to claim and I was out into a train station. The train station part of Schipol is huge and open with lots of shops and people all over. There were little machines that you could get tickets from but I went over to the huge ticket booths and bought mine from a person. I just wanted to make super sure I was getting the right ticket and headed to the right platform; not like it even matter because no one ever asked to see a ticket from me. So a few minutes after I go down to the tracks the train gets there, and its a double decker...umm, awesome! The doors open to a little platform and you can either go upstairs or down to two different seating areas. It was really nice for a little 15 minute train ride, you really get your 7 euro worth haha. Next stop was Centraal station Amsterdam.
Walking out of central was little scary. It wasn't at all crowded yet, with what I hear to be beggars and drug pushers, but the sun had barely started to rise and the area around the station was under construction. So it was hard to gain my bearings, but I just followed a few people and ended up on Damrak, the main tourist street in the city. And this is where I got a little lost. I decided to go to Anne Frank first since it was the most important thing to me, and I heard the line gets super long if you wait too late. So I was just walking down Damrak looking for something bigger than a tiny/scary alley to cross over to the outer canal rings where the house is. After a while I reach the Dam Square and there was a carnival set up, probably is super cute at night. I decided then to turn right down a street bigger than an alley but after walking it for a few minutes I began to wonder why it's talking so long. So i turned up a canal to an even bigger street I could see straight ahead that looked super busy, always a good sign. I was right, the Westerkirk Church was right up on the corner and Anne Frank is like next door to the church!
Feeling accomplished I sat down on a little bench outside the church to look at my map and see what went wrong...I just went too far south on Damrak. I should have turned at another street that was hidden by the stupid carnival set up. Oh well. So I walked up the block to Anne Frank and there were already people in line, and it was 30 minutes before it opened! I wandered up the street a little and took a few photographs before settling into the line behind them. The people in front of me were in Ams on a layover as well, on their way home to New Jersey from Africa. It rained a little off and on until the house opened, and the line was pretty deep behind me. The museum is awesome. You start in the warehouse and offices and then make your way up to the secret annex. It's a self guided tour, but there is so much to read, watch, and look at. Something I really liked about the museum were the quotes from Anne's diary on the wall that pertained to whatever was on exhibit in that room. After going through all the office rooms and up some steep stairs it was time to go behind the moveable staircase and up to the annex. The stairs up were extremely steep and very tiny and led to what was Anne's parents and sister's room. Otto Frank, Anne's dad kept a map of Normandy on the wall and tracked attacks made in the war, and he marked Anne and her sister Margot's height as they grew in the annex. The next room is Anne's that she shared with the dentist. The walls are still covered with all the photos and postcared she put up to make living there more bearable. Being in her room where she sat at her desk and wrote her diary was unreal. Up another set of stairs, again unbelieveably steep, narrow and tiny, was the main room/kitchen of the apartment which was also room to the Van Pels. Their son Peter lived in the stairwell to the attic next to their room. After leaving the annex and finding out the fates of all who lived there, they have Anne's actual diary on display. Anne had plans to turn her diary into a novel after the war, so there is a section in the diary room where you can see revisions she had typed up in preparation for publication. Another cool part of the museum is right at the end there is Shelly Winters Oscar she won for her portrayal of Mrs. Van Pels in the movie based on Anne Frank's diary. She told Otto that she would give it to the museum if she won, and she actually did. Leaving the museum and walking past the front of the little brownstone that contains the secret annex, you can't help but look at the canal and think about the face that this is the last thing Anne saw of Amsterdam as she was being taken from her hiding place to Auschwtiz.
On that note it started to rain. Of course I didn't put my umbrella in my carry on bag, wasn't sure if it could come through security, so I put the hood up on my jacket and headed back to the main part of the city. A few times it really started pouring so i hid under store overhangs until it let up. At one point I ran into the people from New Jersey, it was funny seeing familiar faces in a city where you know no one. Eventually it stopped raining and I turned a few corners and found the cat boat!
De Poezenboot is a house boat on the Singel canal that gives refuge to stray cats in the city. I'm guessing there are a lot because I saw two earlier at the church next to Anne Frank Huis. I didn't see any cats in the boat, but I just had to go check it out. You can even go inside and play with the cats, but I wasn't there the right day. By then I was feeling pretty tired but it was only like 10:30, so I made my way back to Damrak. I had to take a few scary alleys, that probably aren't so scary as I think they are, but I made it to one of the main pedestrian shopping streets which was super crowded by now. I checked out a few stores, but I still wasn't feeling great so I continued to Damrak and then it started randomly hailing/sleeting. I had just crossed the street behind this tram and I thought it was just the tram kicking up rocks, it took a minute to realize it wasn't.
It only lasted a minute and I made it back to Damrak where I saw a bunch of canal tour places. I picked one at random because it was fairly cheap and looked like it was about to leave. I thought this would be a great way to see more of the city and kill some time. It was alright. I got a window seat but my window couldn't slide open so a lot of my photos have a glare. The tour went around the main canal of the city and pointed out many interesting sites, we even went by the cat boat! It was a round trip so at the end we were brought back to Damrak and I decided to just go back to Schiphol.
This time Central was much more crowded, but I was able to look at the boards and find my platform right away. The train came not much later and I hopped on like a pro. I started a conversation with the lady sitting across from me, i figured she was doing a layover like me since she was looking at a boarding pass. She thought I was European haha! We talked a little bit about where she was from (Seattle), where she was going (Dusseldorf, Germany) and how this was her first time overseas. We split up at the Schiphol train station because she had to go find the locker she had stored her carryon bag. Security wasn't too bad, and I didn't have to go through passport control since I was just going to Munich. Ummm, ok whatever. Dad and I landed in Munich around the same time, met up and caught a cab to the hotel. We planned on walking around after dinner but it was super busy and took too long and we were exhausted after the trip so it was time for bed.
***sorry this is sooooo long, and it took even longer for me to type up! I might not get another one done before I get back, but eventually I'll post all my entries...***
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